FATHER'S DAY MYSTERIES // FATHER'S DAY CRIME FICTION

Father's Day: A day to celebrate Dad. My father was the ultimate reader. His idea of a great vacation was sitting in a chair reading a mystery. It didn't mattered that he was home, the book took him miles away -- and he was comfortable!

Even now after he's been gone these many years, I find myself finishing a mystery and saying to myself, "I have to send this to Dad. He'll love it." It always makes me sad to remember I can't. My father engendered my love of mysteries through his collection of mystery novels and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazines. I like to think he's up there somewhere in a comfortable chair surrounded by books, reading a good mystery.

This year I've included True Crime, as well as fiction, on my Father's Day list. I've also included more Short Stories and a Graphic Novel. And, of course, I've updated the list. Let me know if I've missed any titles/authors.

FATHER'S DAY MYSTERIES

Father’s Day by John Calvin Batchelor
Father’s Day by Rudolph Engelman
Father's Day: A Detective Joe Guerry Story by Tippie Rosemarie Fulton
Father’s Day Keith Gilman 
Dear Old Dead by Jane Haddam
The Father’s Day Murder by Lee Harris
Day of Reckoning by Kathy Herman
Dead Water by Victoria Houston
Father's Day Fugitive by Tonya Kappes

Father's Day by Richard Madeley

Father’s Day Murder by Leslie Meier
On Father's Day by Megan Norris
Father’s Day by Alan Trustman

Murder for Father, edited by Martin Greenberg (short stories)
"Father's Day" by Patti Abbott --short story at Spinetingler
Collateral Damage: A Do Some Damage Collection  e-book of Father's Day themed short stories.
"Where's Your Daddy?" by Sue Ann Jaffarian

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And a list of Crime Fiction that focuses on Fathers and Sons and Fathers and Daughters. Have a favorite Father / Son Father/Daughter Mystery? Post below in comments or send me a note.


FATHERS AND SONS and FATHERS AND DAUGHTERS in CRIME FICTION

The Stay at Home Dad series by Jeffrey Allen

Carriage Trade by Stephen Birmingham
His Father's Son by Tony Black
Her Father's Secret by Sara Blaedel
The Guest Room by Chris Bohjalian
The Lonely Witness by William Boyle

The Controller by Matt Brolly

All Things Cease to Appear by Elizabeth Brundage
Secret Father by James Carroll
The Emperor of Ocean Park by Stephen L. Carter

The President's Daughter by Bill Clinton & James Patterson
The Hasidic Rebbe's Son by Joan Lipinsky Cochran

Hot Plastic by Peter Craig
The Marsh King's Daughter by Karen Dionne 
The Poacher's Son by Paul Doiron
Killings by Andre Dubus

The Perfect Father by Charlotte Duckworth

Lars and Little Olduvai by Keith Spencer Felton
The Dead Daughter by Thomas Fincham

Unsub by Meg Gardner   
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
The Dead Fathers Club by Matt Haig

Gnosis by Rick Hall

Atticus by Ron Hansen

King of Lies by John Hart
Damage by Josephine Hart

The Good Father by Noah Hawley
1922; The Shining by Stephen King

Revival Season by Bharti Kirchner    
Cold in July by Joe R. Lansdale

A Perfect Spy by John LeCarre 
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Charlie Chan Returns by Dennis Lynds

I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh
Darksight by D.C. Mallery

Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh

Blood Grove by Walter Mosley 
The Son by Jo Nesbo

Beijing Payback by Daniel Nieh

Ali Cross: Like Father, Like Son by James Patterson

The President's Daughter by James Patterson & Bill Clinton

Sherlock Holmes Dark Son, Dark Father by John Pirillo

The Godfather by Mario Puzo
The Roman Hat Mystery; other novels by Ellery Queen (Manfred B. Lee and Frederic Dannay)
My Son, the Murderer by Patrick Quentin

Paperback Original by Will Rhode
The Senior Sleuths: Dead in Bed by Marcia Rosen
Baby's First Felony by John Straley

The Father by Anton Swenson

City on the Edge by David Swinson

To Die in California by Newton Thornburg

The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinti

Father's Day by Simon Van Booy

The Second Son by Jordan Wells

The Ones Who Do by Daniel Woodrell 

True Crime: So very, very dark! Disturbing...but a new category on the list!

Incident at Big Sky by Johnny France and Malcolm Mcconnell

Fatal Vision by Joe McGinniss

Murder in Little Egypt by Darcy O'Brien

If I Can't Have Them by Gregg Olsen

The Poison Tree by Alan Prendergast

Above Suspicion; Death Sentence by Joe Sharkey

Fred & Rose by Howard Sounes

Short Stories: 

"Father's Day" by Michael Connelly in Blue Murder

A Holiday Sampler by Christine Collier

Where's Your Daddy? (Holidays from Hell Short Story Series) by Sue Ann Jaffarian

Murder for Father, Edited by Martin Greenberg, stories by Ruth Rendell, Ed Gorman, Max Allan Collins, Bill Crider and more

Graphic Novels:

Father's Day by Mike Richardson, Illustrated by Gabriel Guzman

Cartoon of the Day: Anxiety

 

Vintage Library Poster of the Week: Take along a BOOK

 

Mapback Mondays: Leslie Ford's The Philadelphia Murder Story

Today, I'm revising Mapback Mondays! 

Dell Mapback Books were printed in the 1940s and 50s, and they were something really special! They were great paperbacks, not only for the books themselves, but for the sturdy laminated covers that also had maps of the scene of the crime on the back! How cool is that? 

For a history of Dell Mapbacks, read J. Kingston Pierce's Dell Mapbacks: a History in CrimeReads. 

So to begin Mapback Mondays, here's the cover and mapback from Leslie Ford's The Philadelphia Murder Story! I'm from Philadelphia originally, so I'm drawn to everything Philly! This Mapback features lots of my haunts--well maybe not the Police Station. And the mystery is a 'bibliomystery'. What's not to love?

"The Death of an Author Upsets Society and The SatEvePost in "the Philadelphia Murder Story"  

Cartoon of the Day: Clue

 

SUMMER CAMP MYSTERIES

I was not a big summer camp fan. I hated bugs and outdoorsy stuff -- the woods, the camp fire, the ghost stories, the mean girls. 

When I was young, my Dad would spend his 'summer vacation' as a camp doctor, thus affording my sister and me the 'pleasure' of 2-4 weeks at overnight summer camp. My sister loved it; I hated it. But when I was 13, I went to the best summer camp ever (my father was not camp doctor): The New Hope Academy of the Performing Arts at Ramblerny. Oh my. Great fun with like minds and talented peers. This was not a common overnight camp at the time. Ramblerny was an Arts Camp, a summer camp for the performing arts -- no counselors, little or no supervision, no sports, no bells, or taps. Rather, there were drama workshops, music classes, dance practices, play-writing. Case in Point: The large cracked swimming pool later became an amphitheater!  To be fair, there was archery and swimming and other sports available, but nothing you 'had' to do. 

Ramblerny summer camp was a world to itself, as, most summer camps seem to be, but this one opened a new world for me. I cherished the amount of freedom, but I also learned a lot about various arts: Drama: I will never forget the well-known actors who came down from NYC to teach and encourage us 'misfits' ("Breathe through your diaphragm"), Art: famous artists who worked with us on various projects such as set design, as if we were peers; world famous playwrights who critiqued our work (gently). Wowza. And to date myself, this was a very long time ago, and way before the hippie era.

As I was writing this memory, I thought I should do some fact checking. Memory, as we all know, can be faulty. Thanks, Internet, for copies of the Ramblerny brochure. I wasn't too wrong..I didn't, though, remember ANY sports element. (I did find a further mention that teens could choose their own sports, if they wanted, at any time, with equipment found around the property! Yes! Be sure and check out the Policy statement re: rules. And, who knew that so much later in my life, after a multitude of careers and years of academic study, I would come full circle and establish a theatre company and write and produce plays? Back to my roots, as a 13 year old girl at Ramblerny!

But back to crime fiction. Since I had had a taste of the traditional summer camp, the kind that most of my friends attended for the entire summer (usually for 2 months!!!), I understand why summer camp would be the perfect place to set a mystery. I do realize I missed out on life-long friends who built memories as they reunited every summer. Traditional summer camp had its merits, but not for me at that time. Remember, there were no computer camps (there were no computers!), no French camps (that I knew of), no Writing camps, no CSI or Science Summer Camps. 

So in regards to mystery fiction, there are so many ways to commit crimes at summer camp, and some to those crimes never got reported and festered for years leading way to the unsolved crimes later in life. Summer camp was clearly not all S'mores and the Lake. I've separated out the YA and children's crime fiction from the adult summer camp mysteries on my Summer Camp List, but there really is a cross-over between YA and adult. I didn't include a bunch of horror summer camp mysteries. Sorry..just not my thing. And, FYA, there are a lot of them. No surprise there!

So while you're packing the kids up for camp, throw a few of these books into their trunk! They'll thank you for it. Or better still, ask them to write a mystery about their camp experience for you in their spare camp time!

As always, send me any missing titles/authors. Thanks!

Summer Camp Mysteries: Updated List

You're Not Supposed to Die Tonight by Kaylynn Bayron

If You Tell a Lie by Lucinda Berry

The Camp by Nancy Bush

A Murder Most Camp by Nicolas DiDomizio

Summer Camp Culprit by C.K. Fyfe

The Counselors by Jessica Goodman
You Will Pay by Lisa Jackson

The Box in the Woods by Maureen Johnson
Fatal Glitch: Camp Zero by Erin Estrada Kelly

The Honeys by Ryan La Sala

The Last Place You Look by Kristen Lepionka

Camp So-and-So by Mary McCoy

The Wild One by Colleen McKeegan
I'll Never Tell by Catherine McKenzie

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore

The Lake by Natasha Preston

The Girl in the Mist by A.J. Rivers

Don't Lie to Me by Willow Rose

The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager

Summer Camp for Slasher Victims by Steve Simms

YA & Children's Books:

The Summer Camp Mysteries (Cam Jansen Mysteries) by David A. Adler

The Meadow-Brook Girls Under Canvas by Janet Aldridge

You're Not Supposed to Die Tonight by Kalynn Bayron

The Summer Camp Science Mysteries by Lynda Beauregard, Der-shing Helmer

Camp Murder Face by Josh Berk & Saundra Mitchell

Code Name Cassandra by Jenny Carroll (Meg Cabot)

The Last Girls Standing by Jennifer Dugan

Mystery at Camp Windingo by Lisa Eisenberg

The High School Boys in Summer Camp by H. Irving Hancock

The Girls from Hush Cabin by Marie Hoy-Kenny

The Honeys by Ryan La Sala

Dig Two Graves by Gretchen McNeil

Detective Camp by Ron Roy (Scholastic)

Primal Animals by Julia Lynn Rubin

Lights Out; The Horror at Camp Jellyjam by R.L. Stine

The Summer Camp Mystery (The Boxcar Children) by Gertrude Chandler Warner

Scatter: Her Summer at Girls Camp by Leslie Warren

Camp Creepy by Kiersten White

Short Stories:

"Evil Little Girl" by Barb Goffman in Don't Get Mad, Get Even